


Silent Night

by joeyjames (lilyandjoey)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Best Friends, Coping with Grief, Gen, Insomnia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-04
Updated: 2007-09-04
Packaged: 2017-10-15 20:25:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyandjoey/pseuds/joeyjames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the battle at the Department of Mysteries, Hermione and Harry return to the Burrow with the Weasleys, but neither of them can sleep. We all cope in our own ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silent Night

_“I lay my hands upon your face  
As seasons pass without a trace,  
A silhouette of yesterday  
And all the words I’d never say.  
We laugh, we cry, we live, we die.  
I gave my life to justify  
I realize where I belong  
Close your eyes now, summer’s gone.”_

Summer’s Gone by The Honeymoon

~~~~~~~

Hermione lay awake long into the night. After five years sharing a room at Hogwarts she had become accustomed to the sound of other people sleeping, and knew from Ginny’s soft rhythmic breathing that she was dead to the world. Hermione sighed and shifted awkwardly under the blankets on her put-up bed in Ginny’s little room. Then, she stood and looked out of the window. As she had expected, there was a solitary figure silhouetted in the moonlight.

Slipping noiselessly from the room, Hermione made her way down the stairs, carefully clinging to the wall and using the very edges of the steps so as not to wake anyone with the sound of creaking. Deep down she knew this was excessive caution – the Weasleys were heavy sleepers on the whole and a slight creak wasn’t going to disturb anybody. Smiling at her own foolish behaviour, Hermione continued down in this awkward fashion. As she went she reflected on the comparative loudness of the slightest sound when all was dark and quiet and still.

Having made her way quietly into the kitchen, Hermione realised that she had bare feet and her shoes were up in Ginny’s room. She spotted a pair of Ron’s rather grubby looking shoes and slipped her feet into them. Then she closed the kitchen door quietly behind her as she went out into the Weasleys’ garden and walked softly across the lawn. She felt a little absurd in Ron’s shoes which were far too big for her. She must look like a circus clown.

At the sound of her approach the lone figure turned to watch her. He sat on a fallen tree, which Mrs. Weasley had been asking her many children to move for several days. They had been fairly resistant to this request as it made a convenient bench, but as always it was only a matter of time before the matriarch won. She was quite a formidable woman.

She sat down next to him. Neither said a word in greeting. He glanced at her occasionally. Wordlessly, he pulled his jumper over his head and handed it over to her. Hermione accepted the jumper gratefully. It was colder than she had anticipated.

It was one of the many identical jumpers hand-knitted by Mrs. Weasley that Harry received each year. Sitting in quiet contemplation, she decided that she must look quite the spectacle in her cat-covered pyjama bottoms, Ron’s muddy shoes and Harry’s jumper. _Oh well, at least it’s got an ‘H’ on which is fairly appropriate_ , she thought. Then Hermione decided that although they were best friends it would seem very odd if people saw her in Harry and Ron’s clothes. It wasn’t as though they were going to start sharing clothes on a regular basis like the girls in her dorm.

Hermione regretted that thought instantly as a picture of Ron in her school skirt filled her over-active imagination. Not sure whether to find the image amusing or disturbing, she banished the thought from her mind and turned her attention back to Harry. It really wasn’t like her to have weird thoughts about clothing when her friend was in need. It was just that it was hard for her, when all he really needed was her presence. She didn’t have the words to take away his pain. So her mind had an annoying tendency to wander.

Her thoughts turned at once to Sirius Black. It had been several weeks now since his death in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. It had been hard on them all, but especially on Harry. She tried not to think too hard about what Harry must be going through, his only real parental figure having been torn away from him so cruelly. It almost made her cry to think of it, but she pulled herself together quickly. Harry didn’t need people weeping and wailing. And Sirius certainly wouldn’t have wanted that either.

Hermione reached out silently and took Harry’s hand. To her surprise he acquiesced, and she twined her fingers with his. They sat that way for an indeterminable time, looking out into the darkness together, but alone with their thoughts. After a while, Harry slipped his hand out of Hermione’s and walked a little way from the log. He began pelting a gnome that had been annoying him for some time with stones.

Hermione watched her friend quietly, idly wondering why Harry had stones in his pocket in the first place. Her mum would have shrugged and simply said he’s a boy. Even after five years with Ron and Harry she never ceased to be amazed by the things they kept in their pockets. Stones, twigs, rats, wands, the Marauders Map, Neville’s toad, and of course, things from Fred and George’s stupid shop.

Having bested the gnome, Harry slowly turned and walked back towards her. Hermione slipped gently off the log and sat on the grass, leaning against it for support. He sat down next to her without question and she gently moved him until he was lying with his head in her lap. Then she removed his glasses and put them on her head just as she did with her sunglasses when it got cloudy in summer. Hermione stroked her friend’s hair until he fell asleep.

They were there for several hours, him sleeping soundly for the first time since his loss, and her musing to herself that she must bring a book next time. When it started to get light Hermione woke him regretfully. It wouldn’t do for one of the Weasleys to find them in the garden at that unearthly hour. The twins would tease, Ron would get huffy, their parents would worry and Ginny … Hermione wasn’t really sure what Ginny would do, but it seemed best not to find out.

They both stood up and stretched, then headed back over to the house. As they reached the door, Harry turned, pulled Hermione towards him and gave her a hug that nearly knocked all the air out of her. Then he went in and made his way upstairs. She decided that in his usual emotionally stunted way, that was a sign of thanks.


End file.
